Derek Jeter will earn $15.7 million this year as the shortstop of the New York Yankees. If Honus Wagner were alive and playing today, his salary most likely would be a lot higher.

One of the first inductees into the Baseball of Hame, Wagner had a .328 lifetime batting average during a 21-year career, was an eight-time National League batting champ, led the league five times in stolen bases and RBIs, and boasted a .945 fielding percentage. He died in 1955.

So getting his 1909 baseball card for less than $3 million might be quite a deal.
A T206 Honus Wagner baseball card goes up for auction this morning at Goldin Auctions in West Berlin in Camden County. Bidding ends April 5.

“There are 45 known and authenticated Honus Wagner cards,” said Ken Goldin, founder of Goldin Auctions. He anticipates the card could sell for more than $2.8 million, the existing record.

“We believe it has the potential to do that.”

Fewer than 200 Wagners were printed in 1909 by the American Tobacco Company. Wagner asked that they be recalled because, he said, he didn’t want to set a poor example for youngsters by encouraging them to smoke.

The card being auctioned at Goldin’s is one of the three highest quality cards in existence. On a scale of 1 to 10, a card graded 8 was bought by Wayne Gretzky in 1991 for $451,000. After a handful of other collectors, it rests now with Ken Kendrick, owner of the the Arizona Diamondbacks, who paid $2.8 million for it in 2007.

Another card, with a 5 grade, was sold to an anonymous buyer in 2008 for $1.62 million.

The card at Goldin’s is also graded 5. It’s been in the hands of a private collector and locked in a bank vault for the past five years.

“The way I look at this card, (Diamondbacks’ owner) Kendrick is never going to sell his card — ever,” said Goldin. “The owner of the other card is never going to sell. So you have to figure, if anybody wants a high quality Honus Wagner card, this is their only shot in the next 20 years or so.”